Senior Course (14 yrs and up), $195, 14 week course - Prerequisite: Foundational Great Books
*This course is currently under revision and will be offered at a future date.*
This course will immerse students in an examination of our wider cosmos as they come to understand the purpose of studying Astronomy and how it points to a great symmetry and design in the cycle of the heavens. Through the writing and mathematical hypothesis of the ancient astronomers, students will investigate the movements of astronomical bodies and how their early understanding progressed to our knowledge of the heavens today.
Potential Projects:
- Observing the setting of the Sun, time based upon a point of reference location.
- The movement of the stars across the sky, through choosing one star close to the horizon and noting the time it sets.
- Noting the phases of the moon throughout the month.
- Observations of the planets either hands on, or through of the use of Stellarium (software program)
Reading List: (Online readings will be provided to registered students.)
- The Almagest by Claudius Ptolemy
- On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus
- Introduction to Astronomy by Dr. Michael Augros